short writings about life and faith

Rwanda 2016 – Day 9: New Life in Jesus Ministries

On the 1st of August, we went to New Life in Jesus Ministries for Sunday Worship Service. It was the church one of the BFR staffs and his wife were members of. We were warned(?) that the service would last three and a half to four hours. The length of the worship service included time for interpretation. The official language of Rwanda is Kinyarwanda. I was told that there was no seminary in Rwanda. Hence most pastors were non Rwandans and could not speak Kinyarwanda. Furthermore, the language situation in Rwanda made things even more complicated. English is common language at schools. And some people speak French which was the official language while the country was under Belgium. So, some older people speak French and most young people prefer English. The pastor who served the New Life in Jesus Ministries was a Kenyan. And he preached in English and it was translated in to Kinyarwanda.

So, when words were spoken there would be two people on the pulpit. The worship leader dressed in orange spoke in Kinyarwanda and the interpreter dressed in white translated it in to English. Actually they switched languages time to time.

The pastor on the left side and the interpreter on the right. She was the wife of the BFR member who also helped us as the dental assistant and interpreter. She was very talented and moved in perfect unison with the pastor in every motion while translating without any hesitation. I asked her after the service if they either practiced or she got a written sermon beforehand. Answer was no. All they did was a prayer before starting the service. Hallelujah!